Tech wrap: Verizon feeds hunger for cable spectrum
Verizon Wireless plans to pay $3.6 billion for wireless airwaves from a venture of cable companies Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. Comcast said that the deal represented a 64 percent premium over the $2.2 billion price the cable consortium paid in 2006 for the wireless spectrum being sold to Verizon Wireless.
U.S. Representative Edward Markey asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether software maker Carrier IQ violated millions of mobile phone users’ privacy rights. Carrier IQ makes software that companies including AT&T and Sprint install in mobile devices. It runs in the background, transmitting data that the software maker says its customer companies use to better understand their devices and networks.
Zynga, which plans to go public in two weeks, slashed its value by more than 30 percent to $9 billion, hoping to avoid the fate of other recent Internet IPOs that have disappointed after stock market debuts. Just two weeks ago a filing listed the Facebook game maker’s value, based on a third party assessment, at $14.05 billion. CEO Mark Pincus, a serial entrepreneur before he founded Zynga, will hold a class of shares with 70 times more voting power than the common stock that will be sold in the offering.
RIM booked a huge charge to write down inventories of its underwhelming PlayBook tablet, capping a dismal year with a steep profit warning that sent its shares tumbling. The company said it now no longer expects to meet its full-year earnings forecast, due to weak sales, the PlayBook writedown and a charge related to a damaging service outage in October. RIM’s U.S. traded shares ended the day down almost 10 percent.
Google won approval from U.S. antitrust regulators to buy online advertising company Admeld without any conditions, the Justice Department said.
Britain’s consumer watchdog said it is investigating Groupon UK after receiving complaints about how the daily-deal company was conducting its business. The Office of Fair Trading said it had been investigating Groupon UK, which offers daily deals on products from hotel stays to calendars, in secret since July.
Hard disk drive maker Western Digital, the worst hit by the Thai floods, could recover the market share it has lost to smaller rival Seagate Technology faster-than-anticipated, analysts said. Western Digital said it partly resumed production ahead of schedule and raised its outlook for the December quarter, prompting at least three brokerages to raise their price targets on the stock.
Tech wrap: “DingleBerry” rings RIM’s security bell
Three hackers said they had exploited a vulnerability in Research In Motion’s PlayBook tablet to gain root access to the device, a claim that could damage the BlackBerry maker’s hard-won reputation for security. The hackers plan to release their data within a week as a tool called DingleBerry. In a response to queries, RIM said it is investigating the claim, and if a jailbreak is confirmed will release a patch to plug the hole. The PlayBook runs on a different operating system than RIM’s current BlackBerry smartphones. However, the QNX system will be incorporated into its smartphones starting next year. The PlayBook in July became the first tablet device to win a security certification approving it for U.S. government use.
Samsung is set to resume selling its Galaxy tablet computer in Australia as early as Friday, after it won a rare legal victory in a long-running global patent war with Apple. An Australian federal court unanimously decided to lift a preliminary injunction, imposed by a lower court, on sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 — but granted Apple a stay on lifting the sales ban until Friday afternoon.
Groupon’s shares rose after CEO Andrew Mason emerged from the company’s post-IPO quiet period to share holiday sales numbers. Groupon sold more than 650,000 holiday deals between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, an increase of 500 percent compared with last year, Mason said in a blog post. Groupon closed the trading day up 9.3 percent $17.50.
Japanese authorities may take weeks to make any arrests over the accounting scandal at Olympus, though initial findings by an investigative panel of experts are due to be released in days, lawyers said. Even if criminal complaints are filed against former executives or others involved in the scam, which dates back two decades, arrests might not take place by end-year. This is partly to allow both suspects and prosecutors to spend the new year’s holidays at home, since the turn of the new year is Japan’s biggest traditional holiday, akin to Christmas in the West. Suspects can be held for a total of 22 days before either being indicted or released.
Toshiba said it would close three of its six discrete chip-making facilities in Japan and also trim output of certain types of chips over the year-end as demand for PCs and TVs slides in the U.S. and Europe. Discrete chips are relatively simple semiconductors used in a wide range of electronic products from audio-visual equipment to cars and mobile phones. The three plants are scheduled to be closed in the first half of the fiscal year starting in April 2012, in a bid to slash costs, with Japanese makers at a disadvantage because of strength in the yen.
Tech wrap: Microsoft allowed looks at Yahoo’s books
Microsoft has signed a confidentiality agreement with Yahoo, allowing the software giant to take a closer look at Yahoo’s business, according to a source familiar with the matter. Microsoft joins several private equity firms that are also poring over Yahoo’s books and operations, as they explore various options for striking a deal with the struggling Internet company. Microsoft’s signing of a nondisclosure agreement with Yahoo occurred “recently,” according to the source.
Shares of Groupon fell for a third day , sinking below the company’s initial public offering price of $20 less than three weeks after the daily deal company went public. Groupon raised more than $700 million in an IPO in early November, making it the biggest IPO by a U.S. Internet company since Google raised $1.7 billion in 2004. Analysts have cited concerns about increased competition, a greater availability of the company’s stock for short-selling, and a sharp reversal of market sentiment that is taking down more speculative companies. Groupon shares ended the day down 15.5 percent at $16.96.
Big-Box retailer Best Buy has no regrets about stocking Research In Motion’s PlayBook tablet, despite the product’s poor reception and subsequent sharp discounting. RIM says it has shipped 700,000 PlayBooks since its launch, a figure dwarfed by the millions of iPads Apple sells each quarter. “When a product is less successful, you do what you need to do, and you move to the next thing,” Best Buy’s president for the Americas, Mike Vitelli, told Reuters. “That kind of quick reaction by the suppliers, whether it is BlackBerry or HP with their product, I actually think that is good for consumers too,” Vitelli said.
Nokia Siemens Networks, the world’s second-largest maker of mobile phone network equipment, is axing 17,000 jobs, nearly a quarter of its workforce, to help save about 1 billion euros ($1.35 billion) a year. NSN, which has struggled to make a profit since being set up in 2007, did not say where it would make the cuts, part of wider changes that analysts said looked aimed at gearing up the company for an initial public offering.
Google said on Tuesday that it was pulling the plug on seven projects, including Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal as well as a Wikipedia-like online encyclopedia service known as Knol. The plans, which Google announced on its corporate blog, represent the third so-called “spring cleaning” announcement that Google has made since Google co-founder Page took the reins in April.
Apple’s Black Friday deals were revealed ahead of time by tech blog 9to5Mac. The blog said Apple’s offerings were similar to those of years past, but gave better discounts on higher capacities of iPads and iPods. Apple’s Macs will cost $101 less, iPads discounts will range from $41 to $61 discounts and the iPod nano will $11 less for both the 8GB and 16GB versions, the blog wrote. The biggest discount will be on the base level MacBook Air, which will now start at $898 in the U.S.
Tech wrap: Apple misses, Intel beats quarterly expectations
Apple reported a rare miss in quarterly revenue after sales of its flagship iPhone fell well short of Wall Street expectations. The September quarterly report was Apple’s first under new CEO Tim Cook, who took over in August after co-founder Steve Jobs resigned. The company reported a net profit of $6.62 billion, or $7.05 a share. That fell shy of expectations for earnings of $7.39 per share.
One analyst blamed lofty expectations for the miss. “The reality is their business is not an annuity. They have to sell their quarter’s worth of revenue every 90 days. They had a big upgrade cycle with the iPhone, the numbers came in weak. They need to set records every time they report to keep the momentum”, said Colin Gillis at BGC Partners.
Intel forecast quarterly revenue above expectations, defying concerns that the growing popularity of tablets and a shaky economy are eating into demand for personal computers. Intel said revenue in the current quarter would be $14.7 billion, plus or minus $500 million. Analysts on average had expected current-quarter revenue of $14.23 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Intel’s processors are used in 80 percent of the world’s PCs but the company has failed to gain traction in mobile gadgets like Apple’s iPad and Google’s Android smartphones. It also increasingly depends on China and other emerging markets to make up for weak sales in the U.S. and Europe.
Yahoo’s net revenue and profit slipped in the third quarter, as the Internet company struggled to revive its online advertising business. Yahoo’s net revenue — which excludes fees paid to partner websites — was $1.07 billion, compared with $1.12 billion at this time last year, and in line with Wall Street expectations.
RIM said it will introduce souped-up operating software for its BlackBerry smartphone and PlayBook tablet designed to make both more formidable competitors to Apple and Google devices. RIM, which made the announcement at a developers conference in San Francisco, said it would install its new BBX platform in next-generation devices but provided no timetable.
Apple plans to shutter U.S. retail stores for several hours on Wednesday so employees can take part in a company-wide celebration of co-founder Steve Jobs’ life, a person familiar with the celebration said. Store employees in the U.S. will use that time to view a live broadcast of the event, which is being held at an outdoor amphitheater at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino. The celebration — which will be held from 10 a.m. PT to 11:30 a.m. PT — follows a private memorial service for the late tech visionary at Stanford University attended by Silicon Valley luminaries, politicians and celebrities.
Tech wrap: Microsoft’s Office shines, Windows lacks luster
Microsoft reported a greater-than-expected 30 percent increase in fiscal fourth-quarter profit, helped by sales of its Office software, but profit from its core Windows product fell on soft PC sales. Microsoft posted net profit of $5.87 billion, or 69 cents per share, compared with $4.52 billion, or 51 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. That easily beat Wall Street’s average estimate of 58 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
“These are great results given a slower PC environment and it highlights how the company has multiple revenue streams. The $17 billion unearned revenue, which is a forward indicator of business, shows they signed a lot of deals this quarter,” said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis.
AT&T posted better-than-expected subscriber growth for the second quarter, pushing its profits and sales past Wall Street estimates despite the loss of exclusive U.S. rights to sell the Apple iPhone.
Nokia’s outlook for its handset business to be profitable in the current quarter brought some relief to its battered share price but analysts doubted it would dispel fears about the future of the onetime cellphone leviathan. Nokia said it sold 16.7 million smartphones in the quarter, falling behind Apple’s 20.3 million iPhones. Its quarterly phone sales volume were down 20 percent from a year ago, missing analysts’ forecasts, at a time when the overall global market grew around 10 percent.
After a brief hiatus and an FBI takedown of several alleged “hacktivists,” two groups that claimed responsibility for a recent wave of cyber vandalism said they are back. A statement was posted online on Thursday jointly by the groups, Anonymous and Lulz Security, after U.S. authorities arrested 16 people earlier this week for several attacks, most prominently Anonymous’ attempt to cripple eBay’s PayPal site after it stopped accepting donations to the WikiLeaks organization.
Groupon’s privacy and data-collection policies came under congressional scrutiny, the latest sign of regulatory pressure on the largest online daily deals company. Representatives Joe Barton and Edward Markey, co-chairmen of the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, said they sent a letter on Thursday to Groupon CEO Andrew Mason asking about the company’s new privacy and data collection policy. Groupon unveiled new policies earlier this month in an email to its more than 80 million subscribers. The company said it collects subscribers’ contact details and information on their Groupon transactions, financial accounts, location and relationships and shares that data with merchants in some instances.
RIM’s PlayBook received the green light for use in U.S. federal government agencies, the BlackBerry maker said. It is the first tablet computer to receive Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2 certification, RIM said in a statement. FIPS 140-2 is used to judge the security of mobile devices, servers, routers and firewalls, for use by federal agencies such as the FBI. Apple has applied for certification for both the iPhone and the iPad.
Tech wrap: Spain makes Sony attack arrests
Spanish police arrested three men suspected to be members of the hacker group Anonymous, charging them with organizing cyber attacks against the websites of Sony, Spanish banks BBVA and Bankia, and Italian energy group Enel SpA– but not the recent massive hacking of PlayStation gamers. Anonymous responded by threatening to retaliate for the arrests: “We are Legion, so EXPECT US,” the group said on its official Twitter feed.
EU countries agreed on tougher sanctions against people conducting cyber attacks. Under the new rules, which have to be agreed by the European Parliament, hackers would face a sentence of at least five years if found guilty of causing serious damage to IT systems.
Nokia was expected to report a loss for this quarter and next as it cuts prices to try to prevent more customers defecting to rivals’ smartphones, a Reuters poll found. Analysts also forecast a meager profit in the normally buoyant fourth quarter, as the once-undisputed leader in mobile phones loses the initiative to smartphones like Apple’s iPhone and devices based on Google’s Android software.
Research In Motion will roll out its PlayBook tablet computer in 16 countries outside North America over the next month amid roiling criticism of its competitive stance. But analysts warn it risks repeating the tepid North American start, with limited marketing clipping sales potential.
Apple was accused of copying an app that was developed and submitted for use in its App Store by a student, which it subsequently rejected. Apple unveiled the app as part of a set of features for the upcoming iOS 5, which included the same wireless-syncing functionality as developer Greg Hughes’s WiFi Sync and a near identical logo, writes The Register’s Dan Goodin.
Tech wrap: RIM’s Playbook recall
Research in Motion shares neared a two-year low after the BlackBerry maker said it has recalled about 1,000 of its Playbook tablets due to an operating system bug. Most of the devices affected remain in the distribution channel and haven’t yet been sold to customers, the Canadian company said in a statement posted on CrackBerry.com.
RIM said it will replace faulty tablets and prompted customers who had received one to contact the company for help. Engadget, the technology blog that first broke the news over the weekend, has compiled a spreadsheet of the 935 alleged serial numbers affected by the recall.
Sony began restoring access to its PlayStation Network games service over the weekend, nearly a month after it was shut down due to a massive security breach that exposed personal details of 100 million users. The Japanese electronics and entertainment company apologized to customers for the service disruption and said it had implemented a new early warning system that would help prevent similar attacks in the future. Sony will phase in service on a country by country basis with the aim of having the process completed by May 31.
AT&T plans to launch a wireless security service for consumers next year that will help combat a big spike in cyber attacks on mobile devices, said John Stankey, the company’s head of enterprise business, in an interview ahead of the Reuters Technology and Telecommunications Summit. Stankey said customers’ current reluctance to pay for such services will likely change as they become more aware of security threats that arise from using smartphones to download Web-based applications.
Barnes & Noble marked a milestone on Monday as it announced that 1 million applications had been downloaded from its Nook Color marketplace after its first week of business. Angry Birds topped the list as the most popular paid application, with Solitaire, Drawing Pad, Aces Jewel Hunt and Astraware rounding out the top five on the list.
Tech wrap: RIM shares dive ahead of BlackBerry World
Research in Motion shares tanked to their lowest level since October after the BlackBerry maker slashed its sales and earnings forecasts Thursday, an unexpected blow that followed an anemic forecast in late March and last week’s troubled launch of its PlayBook tablet. “We’ve heard for too long about RIM’s great product roadmap. Consumers are not listening nor waiting,” National Bank analysts said in a note. “RIM does not even seem to have dual cameras on its upcoming BlackBerry product line-up. The last time we checked, video is the future.” All hope seems to rest on what the Canadian company pulls out of its labs and onto center stage at BlackBerry World, starting Monday, where the company will unveil a new generation of touchscreen BlackBerrys.
Microsoft shares fell their most in almost two years, a day after reporting a dip in Windows sales. Investors were concerned with lower personal computer sales nagging at Windows, Xbox sales bringing down profit margins and losses in Microsoft’s online business.
Strong demand for smartphones gave a further boost to overall cellphone market volumes in January-March and made Apple a rare winner on the market, research firms said. IDC saw January-March market growth of 20 percent, helped also by strong gains by smaller vendors as the three largest phone makers — Nokia, Samsung and LG — lost market share. Apple’s iPhone sales more than doubled from a year ago, buoyed by strong sales on Verizon Wireless and additional carrier deals elsewhere, with market share rising to 5 percent.
Amazon apologized to customers for an outage at its Web hosting business that caused some websites to crash on April 21, saying it would credit them for their inconvenience. The company said in a blog posting of nearly 5,700 words that the bulk of its customers had their systems restored by April 24, but that a small amount of data had yet to be recovered.
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iphone 5
Tech wrap: Q1 earnings beat expectations, RIM’s PlayBook – not so much
Intel forecast quarterly revenues well above Wall Street’s estimates despite a hiccup in sales of its Sandy Bridge processors after the discovery of a chipset design flaw and defying fears the world’s top chip maker is struggling to find its footing as personal computer sales growth wanes.
IBM raised its profit forecast as the tech giant released quarterly earnings ahead of Wall Street projections, citing strong sales of its mainframe computers and brisk business in emerging markets.
Yahoo posted quarterly earnings that topped Wall Street targets amid threats to the No. 1 provider of online display ads in the U.S. from Facebook and continuing pressure from search leader Google.
RIM’s PlayBook tablet launched in almost empty stores, in a far cry from the frenzy that accompanies the debut of anything from rival Apple. AT&T said it will not support the BlackBerry Bridge function that lets the PlayBook mirror a BlackBerry smartphone. But analysts say RIM should stay in the hunt with the PlayBook despite a likely slow start, as it overhauls its creaky platform with the QNX operating system it acquired last year. RIM expects large businesses to buy PlayBooks in “the tens of thousands.”
The global tablet market will grow to a $49-billion business by 2015, research firm Strategy Analytics said. The tablet market will become the third largest consumer electronics sector, after televisions and personal computers, the research firm said, forecasting 149 million units will be sold in 2015, growing eightfold from 2010.
Seagate acquired Samsung’s loss-making hard disk drive business for $1.4 billion, pitting it head-to-head with Western Digital in an industry that has been dogged by price wars and facing longer-term threat from wireless tablet devices such as Apple’s iPad that use more power-efficient solid state drives.
Low key PlayBook launch day
Research In Motion’s much vaunted PlayBook tablet got off to a quiet start in North America on Tuesday.
After leaving an empty Staples midtown Manhattan store at about 7:15 AM, we hit the nearby Office Depot. It had no customers looking for the device. In fact, it was hard to tell Office Depot was even selling PlayBook at all until a store employee directed us to the basement.
It took a while to find the PlayBook display among the other office supplies.
Once we found it, the display itself wasn’t very impressive, just a basic promotional sign. In fact, the store said that RIM had yet to send it a demo unit.
Instead, the employee handed out a leaflet listing the product’s tech specifications. Apparently, the store had sold three PlayBook early Tuesday. At about 7:20, a man in a suit came in but it turned out to be a Wall St analyst who stopped by to check out how many people were buying the tablet. Both analyst and reporter were gearing up to interview each other until they discovered they were on the same mission.
Demand looked better in Canada, where a short line formed outside a Best Buy in Toronto. But at a Future Shop in downtown Toronto, staff waited to welcome PlayBook buyers who didn’t really materialize. The PlayBook was at the far end of the tablet aisle and customers had to walk past an iPad display to get to it.
I’d like to interview LifeOfBrian about his post as he’s clearly the only other person interested in the topic
